Though more than 87% of Florida’s hospital beds were full Tuesday, the state continued to see a decrease in patients hospitalized because of COVID-19. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service website said 13,628 patients at 229 Florida hospitals were reported as having COVID-19. That compared to 15,682 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 a week earlier.
Overall, a reported 87.17% of Florida hospital beds were occupied, according to data posted on the federal website. The overall number of hospitalizations, 47,601, was based on a slightly larger number of 235 hospitals reporting. Florida hospitals have faced a huge influx of patients during the past two months as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus has caused case numbers, serious illnesses, and deaths to surge.